diff --git a/trellis/pipelines/trellis_image_to_3d.py b/trellis/pipelines/trellis_image_to_3d.py
index cbaa0ca..5a31295 100644
--- a/trellis/pipelines/trellis_image_to_3d.py
+++ b/trellis/pipelines/trellis_image_to_3d.py
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ from tqdm import tqdm
 from easydict import EasyDict as edict
 from torchvision import transforms
 from PIL import Image
-import rembg
 import gc
 from .base import Pipeline
 from . import samplers
@@ -138,6 +137,7 @@ class TrellisImageTo3DPipeline(Pipeline):
             scale = min(1, 1024 / max_size)
             if scale < 1:
                 input = input.resize((int(input.width * scale), int(input.height * scale)), Image.Resampling.LANCZOS)
+            import rembg  # lazy: only needed to auto-mask non-alpha inputs
             if getattr(self, 'rembg_session', None) is None:
                 self.rembg_session = rembg.new_session('u2net')
             output = rembg.remove(input, session=self.rembg_session)